Trendy. Sleek. Stylish.
Those are the words we usually associate with modernity, whereas traditional looks tend to be more rustic or quaint. But the concept of "modern" can mean different things to different people. Where some achieve a modern look with bold colors and unique designs, others find the simple contrast between black and white gives them an up-to-date aesthetic that makes their home sparkle.
The door styles you choose for your interior and front doors can feed into (or potentially hamper) the modern look you hope to achieve in your home. That's why PINKYS will now explore the concept of modernity so you can sort the new from the old and create a look that's both trendy and uniquely your own.
Cast your gaze back through the annals of history and you'll see that traditional door designs focused on the ornate ahead of the functional. It's not uncommon to see lavish details, floral designs, and intricate ironwork in older doors. These ornate stylings were representative of a level of luxury that standard doors can’t convey.
But these complex designs can seem ostentatious (and a tad unnecessary) to modern eyes. Where once the perfect door combined colors with fancy patterns, the modern front door is sleek, subtle, and altogether more sedate.
Modern door design emerged as a response to the more traditional era of design, first coming into prevalence during the mid-1900s and growing in popularity from there. Modernity– an escape from the complex in search of something simpler–is seen in everything from the music we enjoy to the electronic devices we keep in our pockets.
Clean lines, minimalistic designs, and the lack of unneeded accessories are hallmarks of a modern product, including the creation of up-to-date doors.
In addition to the focus traditional doors place on ornate details, we can also see that many traditional doors also offer natural coloring. Take a look at any wooden door and you'll see that the designer either emphasizes the natural color of the wood (albeit with varnish or a similar finish) or complements their material with a subdued paint.
While attractive (particularly for those who like neutral colors in their home), these design choices are the opposite of the boldness that typifies modern design. Where wooden doors are made to blend in, modern doors use colorful paint or the boldness of their design to stand out.
Black is a common color choice with modern home details, with some designers choosing to contrast this darkest of colors with white or with the natural light that streams in from windows. The materials used also affect the door's coloring. Steel, iron, and aluminum in modern doors create a stark and standout style when compared to the more neutral look you get with wooden doors.
Take a moment to browse any best seller in the PINKYS modern door catalog and you'll see that clean and bold lines are hallmarks of almost every project we work on. Far from being ornate, as with traditional door design, our creations are simple and sleek, often blending straightforward glasswork with thick black lines.
We create contrast between the light that flows through the glass used in our paneling with the dark colors in our iron and steel. This ensures any front door you buy from PINKYS looks unique without being so glaring that it appears out of place in your house.
Though simple in design, modern doors use that simplicity to create a stand-out impression in your mind.
Modernity doesn't come from simply switching out mahogany for steel to create a unique curb appeal. If it were that easy, anybody could achieve a modern look just by inserting a bit of metal into a door (or some way to manufacture their metal into a frame). Today's front doors feature innovative systems that pair the door’s functions and its design, as you'll see from these examples:
These two examples demonstrate that contrasting styles are far from the only difference between modern and traditional doors. It's often the systems used to operate those doors that also make a project truly modern.
Having described how modern hinges and the right hardware can affect the look and feel of a door, it's worth delving into the hardware PINKYS uses to create its modern doors. To do that, we'll look at the clever hardware components we've fitted into our Air 4 Double Doors:
Style is the key when you're trying to modernize your entry doors. So, here are five styles that give your home's frontage plenty of up-to-date curb appeal:
A front door that floods your home with light from the outside creates an airy and spacious look inside. Given that modern design is all about using minimalism to escape clutter, the use of simple glass means you don't have to worry about ostentatious designs on the door. Plus, light that enters your home through the door creates the impression that your space is larger than it really is, which makes any clutter that exists in the space seem like less of a problem.
We don't need to dig too deep to unearth why going bold creates a more modern front door– we've already spoken about the use of bold lines and colors in modern design. Simply put, bold colors, whether they're deep blacks or thick blues, catch the eye and offer the perfect contrast to the more muted colors in typical home frontages. If you're feeling especially brave, try combining two contrasting bold colors in a dual-color setup.
Doubling up your front doors is a great way to stand out from the crowd. While most homes still use traditional single doors, double doors give you more options to create a truly modern entryway. Flanking the doors with sidelights is another popular choice as the light emphasizes the bold and angular design of your doors. The Air 4 Double Flat doors mentioned previously are a perfect example of what this style choice can achieve for your home.
Sometimes, achieving a modern look is less about sticking to a set design philosophy and more about rebelling against what's currently trendy. That's the idea behind geometric door design, which uses interesting shapes to create unique doors that are similar in concept to the ornate doors but are closer to the modernism that you seek. Indeed, embracing geometrics may make you a trendsetter instead of a trend follower.
If you've ever seen an old-school stable door, in which the top and bottom open separately, you've seen Dutch doors in action. Though often seen as a traditional design, these doors see so little use in today's frontages that it makes them a great choice for those who want to stand out without using modern bold designs. The ability to open one half of the door to allow cool air and natural light in–while keeping unwanted rodents and some insects outside–is just a bonus of this previously stable-bound design.
Modernity isn't confined to your home's frontage. Your interior doors can get in on the act as well to create a more cohesive design flow through the house. Here are four ideas that ensure your interior is in keeping with the aesthetic of your exterior.
A single-panel door can seem small if it's set against a large wall, making the entry into your interior space look unattractive. A door with multiple panels (like the Air 4 Bi-Fold) fills the space, allows more light to stream into a room, and offers the bold and modern look that your interior deserves.
The same qualities that make glass panes so effective in modern front door design can be achieved with your interior doors as well. For example, imagine that you have a front door featuring glass, alongside multiple windows that allow light to stream in. With glass interior doors, that light continues to be carried through to every room in the house. The glass also offers visitors a peek into the room that sits behind them.
Industrial chic came to prominence in the 1960s and 1970s, with artists like Andy Warhol capitalizing on raw design elements such as brickwork and steel beams to create interesting pieces. That industrial philosophy can serve a modern aesthetic well because it's as far removed from the rustic wooden doors that scream "tradition" as you can get. Glass may not be a feature of an industrial interior door, though the unique design makes up for that fact.
You may have a little reading nook that you want to separate from a larger space, or a dining area in your kitchen that you want to want to transform into a room of its own. Pocket doors offer the solution in both instances, with their smart wrap-around designs allowing you to create rooms within rooms.
It's often said that the modernity of today will become the tradition of tomorrow. That’s certainly been the case with door designs. The ornate patterns and intricate artwork beloved during the Victorian era gave way to bold colors and sharp lines, creating the modern door aesthetic that is still trendy today.
If you've read this far, that means you're interested in using modern door designs in your home improvement project. If you think your front door needs some sprucing up, the glass panes used in PINKYS doors may be the perfect way to do it. Alternately, if you're looking at achieving a modern look for your interior doors, the sharp lines, bold black coloring, and elegant windows in a PINKYS interior door allow light to flow through your home unobstructed so you can enjoy the modern emphasis on natural lighting.
Whatever your needs, PINKYS offers an assortment of iron and steel doors to bring modernity to your home. Browse our collection to find the ideal door for you, then get in touch with the PINKYS team to get a quote today.